Power Supply

Overview
Electronic equipments require power supplies producing low voltage at different levels.
This module deals with two major components involved in power supply One of them is the Switch Mode Power Supply (SMPS) and the other is Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS).

Switch Mode Power Supply

Introduction
The SMPS is used to give DC voltage to the components present in the motherboard.

It is used to produce different DC voltages necessary to drive the various components like the processor, the hard disk, floppy drive, the processor fan etc

Classification of Power Supplies

The power supplies can be classified into two types Linear Power Supply - LSP Switch Mode Power Supply - SMPS

Linear Power Supply

The linear power supplies dissipate more power during the conversion process. As a result the process is inefficient and requires a large heat sink to cool the system. The example of a linear power supply is the battery adapter

 Switch Mode Power Supply

The switch mode power supply uses a transistor switch and a closed feedback loop to generate DC output.

Various components in SMPS are

Primary Rectifier

Primary Filter
Solid state Switch Transformer

Secondary Rectifier
Secondary Filter Sensing/Switching Circuit

Output DC Voltages
Various DC Voltages are

+12 v

+12V DC Drive Motors and Fans -12V DC Serial Ports +5V DC All ICs (Integrated Circuits) -5V DC Core Memory +3.3V DC Power Good Signal

+12 V is used to drive the disk drive motors. It is also used by components like fans and other cooling devices.

-12 V
The RS-232C interface of the serial port follows the Negative logic. This voltage is provided to the motherboard to power up the serial port +5 V All the integrated components of the motherboard operate with

+5V.
Hence the motherboard is provided with +5V power supply.

+5 V -5V is used to provide the power for core memory.

+3.3 V (Power Good Signal)

To prevent the computer from operating prematurely a power good signal is generated to indicate that the power obtained is proper and can be given to other devices on the motherboard.

ATX Power Connector

ATX Power Connector
A 20 pin Main Power Connector for the standard ATX power connector. A 4 Pin +12V power connector for the Pentium 4 processor based systems. A 6 pin AUX power connector used for the motherboards operating at 250W or 300W.

The ATX power connector and the ATX socket are shown in picture.

AC Adapters
AC Adapters

Portable computers use a different kind of a power supply since they cannot use power from the Wall power outlet all the time.

Line Conditioners

Line conditioners are used to filter and smooth the power stream by minimizing the fluctuations and the variations and interference caused by the power.

Uninterrupted Power Supply - UPS

Overview
Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) is necessary for critical and uninterrupted functioning of the computers.
The advantages are It offers protection against small surges. The unintended signals like noise are removed from the power supply given as input to the PC. It provides a stable output regardless of the nature of the input. It provides power to the PC in case of complete blackout.

Need for Uninterrupted power Supply

Here we learn the various types of power problems and the need for a UPS to solve these problems.

Over Voltage Sags

Brownout
Blackout

Uninterrupted Power Supply

Over Voltages

Over voltage is a sudden increase in the voltage. There are two types of over voltages, which are spikes and surges.
Spikes Surges

To solve the problems of under voltages and over voltages the computer should be connected to the Uninterrupted Power Supply

Uninterrupted Power Supply

UPS has two different sources of power, a primary power supply source and the secondary power supply source. The primary power supply source is the power that is obtained from the wall socket and the other power supply source is the battery A switch present in the UPS ,performs the switching of the power supply source .

Types of UPS
There are basically three types of UPS Standby UPS Line Interactive UPS Online UPS Standby UPS

A stand by UPS is also called an offline UPS. It is the simplest and the cheapest type of UPS.

Line Interactive UPS

The design of the line interactive UPS is completely changed when compared to stand by UPS In the stand by UPS there are separate units for battery charging and inverter circuits In the line interactive UPS both the units are combined and made into one inverter/converter

Online UPS

The online UPS is the best type of UPS among all the three types of UPS and is comparatively expensive. This type of UPS is also provided with two different power sources and a transfer switch. Here the primary power supply is exactly reversed. The primary power supply is the battery present in the UPS and the secondary is the power from the mains.